What did you do? You don’t have to tell me your job title, but what was your job?
I worked at Health and Human Services / Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (HHS/CMS) in Operations. I’m not a policy wonk, I don’t have an Master of Public Health (MPH) or a public works background, I have worked in tech most of my career, so, I don’t write it or legislate, but I observe, track and understand policy and its effect, and I work on teams to help ‘operationalize policy’.
Basically, I worked on the other side of bringing policy to life, in whatever way that means. For example: a new rule is released in Medicaid that says enrollees have a new requirement to fulfill for eligibility; I worked on the teams that build the tools, web portals, give the trainings, and educate the beneficiary (the American public) and roll out the systems that are required to capture that information and execute that policy and bring it to life. A small example, but there are many programs, systems, and tools that the American public uses to access resources to help them in their search for healthcare, and I help plan, track, and roll them out to that market.
How did you find your way into federal service? Did you always want to join up?
I worked as a federal contractor for a long time, from about 2010-2019. A lot of my work was with HHS. I moved to the private sector between 2015-2020 and fully left federal contracting by 2020. I liked the rigor of federal service compared to private sector — it does make things move a bit more slowly, but the discipline, planning, and checks and balances mean that fewer mistakes are made as rollouts are a bit more balanced. Contrast with my private sector tech experience, which was anything but.
I didn’t have dreams of joining federal service, specifically, but I do have a sort of civic-oriented heart. I volunteer a lot, I co-lead an affinity group for kids to help teach about social justice and, as the years went by in the private sector, I felt more and more disoriented around the goals of revenue, rather than building a good product that is useful to the end user (or end beneficiary), so I started looking for federal jobs again starting around 2023, but becoming a full-time federal employee can take months or years — especially if you don’t already have an in-track or come from a lot of public sector experience.
I applied to a ton of jobs here and there, but nothing too serious until I left my last job, and went all-in on applying for basically anything that looked like it fit my skills. I applied to agencies I have never heard of, and I grew up in the DC area and am very attuned to the federal space. With the help of a couple of folks I know in fedspace, and a couple who work at CMS, I learned about a hiring sprint at the end of 2024 and applied to a ton of roles, and was finally able to land in an Operations group that was looking for high technically-skilled folks to execute some website and other product rollouts. Which I felt was both a great way to not lose the skills I had sharpened over my career, and better apply them in a space where I felt the work mattered more.
What does this work mean to you? Why is it important to you, personally?
We all deserve to have access to the resources, information, and tools to help plan for our futures. Health is wealth, and we live in a country with abundant resources, there is no person who shouldn’t have access to — and the ability to — partake. Many people on the outside may not understand the utility of the work I do, or the importance of it, but it makes sure, in as many ways as possible, that we get that information and those tools into folks’ hands, so they can make informed choices about their health. In this job, my hard work means someone can get access to what they need to survive.
What should be important about this work to Americans? Why does it matter?
The American public should know is that this culling/gutting of the ‘probationary’ workforce is also a farce. These are highly skilled, capable, seasoned folks who often have decades of experience and a ton of expertise rolling out large scale programs. I think that many folks imagine probationary employees were kids just out of college, and, yes, there were many of those, but they also had a lot of experience, and there were plenty of veterans. Even myself, I’m in my 40s and have a long job history.
This stuff isn’t for the faint of heart, executing these goals at this level is insanely hard. But the mission and directive are clear; to diligently execute the programs that benefit the public, be good stewards of public funds, and exercise our duties, in good faith and service to the Constiution and the American people. This is the hardest work I’ve ever done, and I’ve worked in really complex environments. It takes a ton of experience and a willingness to learn to understand how government work is meant to be executed, government is not a for-profit organization, it’s a service organization, and the American people are the end beneficiaries. Services are always loss-leaders in tech and that is part of what Elon Musk’s dumb brain doesn’t and will never understand — profit is not the way government works.
What does all of this chaos and dysfunction mean to you? Do you have a sense of how it’s all going to impact the work and the mission?
To me, it’s theatrics meant to disorient and distract folks. Also, a bit of sheer stupidity – this is par for the course in how these tech CEO admins operate, they all have the same playbook. Ultimately, it’s meant to create a diversion to whatever the goal of those creating the chaos is… specifically when it comes to the work I was doing, and from changes that I was already seeing to existing program integrity rules, Trump, Elon or whoever want to privatize the unsubsidized health market and hand it back to their buddies and then ‘Target new audiences’, which means they will also try to find a way to privatize the entire bucket at some point. That is horrific, people will die. A privatized, unsubsidized market will end up becoming predatory, just like what happened with the mortgage industry, but at a time like this, when the economy is so fragile, and everything is on the chopping block for deregulation, this will cost many lives.
Do you know what you’re going to do next? If reinstated, would you go back?
I’m taking it day by day, doing my thing, staying sane. I’m looking into picking up some bit of consulting within my network. All I know now is that our center is still undertaking ongoing suits, board appeals and all that, and we are on perpetual admin leave for now. If I were offered reinstatement, I wouldn’t be so sure a RIF or some other insane action wouldn’t seal the deal in the future. I’ve had an extensive career, and I’ve worked in the same sectors that Elon and Trump come from. To say this is a mindfuck is an understatement — it’s abuse, and emotionally and psychologically taxing. Ultimately, as each day passes, I’m not sure my conscience will allow me to function in this kind of environment, and I know I wouldn’t thrive working in this administration. I took a big gamble, leaving the private sector to go to Fed. While I don’t regret that decision — I believe civic work is meaningful and vital — this admin won’t get our society anywhere good.
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE 